Bert

You could say that Bert was at least partly responsible for us ending up where we are now, doing what we do.

We first met him in August 2014 when he was living in Shropshire and seeing the little set-up he had got there made as wonder if we could do something similar.

Less than five months after meeting Bert we made that change and then seven months after that he decided to come and live with us.

He had sent his lady friend over to us a few weeks previously and they settled down together for a life of leisure and procreation. As time went by Bert concentrated on the former having become not so good at the latter. We felt he had earned the right to enjoy a quiet retirement but also knew that ultimately we would have to decide when it would come to an end…

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So here is Bert when we first met him in Shropshire

He in fact had two lady friends at that time, Spot and Peggy, and earlier that year had jumped a couple of fences and was therefore a happy father of two litters.

Spot arrived with as on 25th August 2015

and soon made herself at home

and then Bert arrived a week later

and quickly renewed his friendship

Bert had a history

But since he had been inactive in the pedigree world for some time he had been pronounced dead. After much persuasion we managed to get him brought back to life

So that after resuming his relationship with Spot

producing some offspring with a vague resemblance to Saddlebacks

he was able to have a new, purebred lady friend, Dinah

and so produce some proper Saddleback babies

Bert continued to spend time for on favourite activities

this was Christmas dinner 2019:

but was happy for others to undertake reproduction duties (we weren’t as good at it as he was)

Having decided he could continue to have free board and lodgings into his retirement we knew that we had taken on the responsibility for his well being.

A few weeks ago he stopped eating. That is very unusual for a pig. He had steroids and antibiotics to see if they would help but he continued to ignore food. He was not in distress and still had the occasional amble and wallow but we was obviously getting weaker. We knew if we waited until he became immobile we would have a big logistical problem so eventually we took the decision to bring in the fallen stock experts.

He was at ease until the end, in familiar surroundings with familiar smells.

March 22nd 2010 – April 20th 2021